On Fireside Chats, Mike talks to Chris about his new book, Twilight of the Elites. Chris explains how the American elite embraced meritocracy. Mike suggests some of the ways meritocracy can be critiqued, and Chris addresses them in turn. He describes the “iron law of oligarchy,” which says that all political movements inevitably produce elites. How did the egalitarian premise of meritocracy produce such an unequal outcome? And how does the new meritocratic elite justify itself?

On Foreign Entanglements, Matt and Hussein discuss the state of play in Egypt. Hussein addresses the alleged “informal agreement” between the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling military SCAF. Matt suggests that Egyptians have expressed a desire for normalcy, and Hussein describes some of the factors behind the strong showing for former prime minister Shafiq. Is Islamism compatible with democracy? Will Egypt follow the older Turkish model, in which the military helped build a stable government, or the more dysfunctional model of Pakistan? And should the US have behaved any differently over the last year?